my question to Martin Bell is why, having felt so compelled to put on his ice cream seller's jacket and pursue the Major government so sanctimoniously, he was so strangely silent about the more numerous and more serious ethical transgressions of the Labour government since 1997 ? didn't fit his political motives maybe ?

The humiliation of the political classes in Britain seems to have occurred only after they agreed to forego most of their real authority.

We are all familiar with the notion that the government can call out the "Payroll Vote" when it needs to but, by also feather-bedding the back-benchers, it has managed to engineer a disgracefully passive culture in Parliament.

As we now know, the fiddles have been going on for years, but their exposure waited until after the Lisbon Treaty was a done deal, because the government needed to keep them on-side.

It's a further sign that UK politics is now a backwater, with all the key decisions being taken elsewhere.

You're better off out of it Iain. The people pester their MP's because they think they have some authority and status but, in reality, Parliament's been reduced to a talking shop.

Having served his term as an MP he stood against Eric Pickles when more deserving individuals would have fitted the anti-sleeze profile(the Dark Lord Mandy springs to mind). Perhaps his friends in the Labour and Liberal parties,who gave him an unopposed run in 1997 required their payment.

After serving his four year term as an MP he stood against Eric Pickles when far more deserving individuals fitted the anti-sleeze profile ,the Dark Lord Mandy, springs to mind. Perhaps his friends in the Labour & Liberal Parties required their payoff for giving him an unopposed run in 1997.

Ask him why he thinks his school (and mine), produced not only him but the only other independent MP Richard Taylor? Also Peter Hitchens and his brother Christopher!! Was there something particular about The Leys School Cambridge in the 1950s and 1960s that produced a few of us (if I may include myself in such distinguished company) who are nobody's patsies!